Redcoats VS. Rebels

11 Aug 2014

My husband and I feel it is important to teach our children about history and not just what they are told in school. We had never been to a reenactment but recently had an opportunity to bring our daughters to one. We thought it would be great to teach them about the revolutionary war. Since it was held in historic Sturbridge Village, it was as if we had been transported back in time... Everything was so authentic looking, right down to the hand forged tent stakes and cast iron cookware. There were over 1,000 reenactors who camped on site and roughed it like it was 1776. (well aside from the occasional cooler full of drinks that we saw, but even those were covered in wood and looked like they were shipping crates or trunks) The battle itself wasn't MY favorite part. It was visiting all of the camps and learning how things were done back then. How they made medicine at the time by grinding chemicals in a mortar and pestle. (They mixed it with honey, rolled it in wax and coated it in pulverized silver so the pills wouldn't stick to each other.) Or smelling the amazing food they were cooking and seeing how perfectly the pies came out after being cooked in a cast iron dutch oven covered in coals from a fire. We learned how they made lye soap- they were actually making it using the ash from a fire, straw, a bucket and rendered animal fat. Many of the families had children that were so into the reenactment that they couldn't wait to show you what they could do. It didn't matter what camp you were in, when the girls asked, we were always talking to the "good guys". So while my husband got the opportunity to connect my children with a tangible version of the past and enforce the importance of liberty and freedom... I got to drool over all of the chipped paint, rusty metal and gnarly wood I could handle and snap away like the nerd that I am.